Writing
Essays are sent on request
Politics
Why Two Parties Fail
Washington warned against party, Madison designed around faction, and the country got two parties anyway
From Washington's farewell address and Federalist No. 10 to the winner-take-all ballot that made two parties inevitable, and what ranked-choice states have changed
Ask for it by emailItaly's Revolving Door
A country that changes governments constantly, and what it can teach one that almost never changes parties
Sixty-eight governments since 1946, set against a country that has kept the same two parties since the 1850s; what churn buys, and what stability costs
Ask for it by emailThe Roman Republic and Us
From the Gracchi to the Rubicon: republics die through their norms first and their laws later
Tiberius Gracchus in 133 BC to Caesar at the Rubicon in 49 BC: eighty years of broken norms before the law itself broke
Ask for it by emailLincoln and Compromise
When he bent, when he refused, and how he told the difference
The Kansas-Nebraska fight, the compromises he refused in 1861, and the Thirteenth Amendment he bargained for
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Markets
Why Small Stocks Stay Cheap
Companies under $500M trade at a discount: why, and who gets paid for noticing
No analyst coverage, thin trading and index rules that keep funds out, with the companies that broke out of it
Ask for it by emailIs AI a Bubble?
Galbraith's Short History of Financial Euphoria, applied to now
Galbraith's markers of euphoria, the new instrument, the leverage, the genius illusion, checked one by one against today's AI trade
Ask for it by emailLuck in a Great Year
How much of a great year was skill, with Taleb and Marks applied to my own book
My own book taken apart trade by trade, asking which wins would have survived a different year
Ask for it by emailActivist Investing
How a small shareholder gets a board to listen, and when it should
How a 5% stake and a 13D filing get a board's attention, and where pushing turns into wrecking
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History
Leonidas Lost
The most famous defeat in history, and why it is remembered as a win
Three days at the pass in 480 BC, why Herodotus made it famous, and why Salamis, not Thermopylae, saved Greece
Ask for it by emailMachiavelli the Republican
Everyone reads The Prince, but the Discourses, his longer book, argues for republics
The Prince read against the Discourses, written in the same years, and the case that the second is the one he meant
Ask for it by emailThe Emperor's Notebook
Marcus Aurelius wrote Meditations for himself, and read that way it changes
What changes when Meditations is read as a private journal instead of a manual
Ask for it by emailThe Melian Dialogue, Today
"The strong do what they can": Thucydides as a manual for negotiation
The siege of Melos in 416 BC as a case study in negotiating from weakness
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Life
The Incredible Power of Asking
Most doors open if you knock: why so few people ask, and what happened when I did
The cold email that got me into IDWR, and what I have learned since about asking well
Ask for it by emailEurope vs America
Growing up between Milan and Los Angeles, and what each gets right that the other forgets
Milan and Los Angeles compared on food, work, ambition and time, by someone who grew up in both
Ask for it by emailInter 2010
Mourinho, the treble, and the art of defending
Mourinho's treble season, from ten men holding out at the Camp Nou to the final in Madrid
Ask for it by emailSuperman vs Batman
Settled, with reasons
The case for Superman, point by point, with the best counterarguments answered
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Inefficiencies
The Inefficiencies of the Airline Industry
Boarding, pricing, connections: an industry that has optimised everything except the trip
Boarding by zone, fares that change by the hour and connections through hubs, and the fixes nobody adopts
Ask for it by emailFour-Way Stops
A personal gripe, and why a roundabout is better in almost every way
Traffic studies on roundabouts, fewer crashes, less waiting, and why America still builds stop signs
Ask for it by emailDaylight Saving Time
Twice a year we break every clock for a benefit nobody can measure
Brought in to save fuel during the First World War, and kept for reasons nobody can quite name
Ask for it by emailPublic Bathroom Hand Dryers
Why they never work, and why paper towels keep winning
Drying times, hygiene studies and the economics of the paper towel
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